


Sometimes, Good People Make Bad Choices (It Just Means They're Human)

by Xx_chxrry_xX



Series: You Are My Home. You Are My Family. [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angel of Death Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Blood God Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade Friendship (Video Blogging RPF), F/F, Immortal Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Long-Haired Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Long-Haired Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), M/M, Multi, Other, Time Travelling Karl Jacobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:34:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 17,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29423898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xx_chxrry_xX/pseuds/Xx_chxrry_xX
Summary: (Title is subject to change)Karl Jacobs can time travel. Dream is an immortal deity who has been stuck in the same human body for the past one hundred years or so. The two ally with each other to help in their goals, and maybe make a few more alliances and friendships along the way.-This was not made to be shoved into the CC's faces. Please do not show it to them without explicit permission.-3K+ HITS?! HOLY COW-and now we have 4K+ hits (27/02/21). :D THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT6k+hits: 09/03/21!!! POGCHAMP!!7k+ hits: 11/03/21
Relationships: Antfrost & Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Darryl Noveschosch & Sapnap, Cara | CaptainPuffy & Clay | Dream, Cara | CaptainPuffy & Niki | Nihachu, Clay | Dream & Karl Jacobs, Clay | Dream & Niki | Nihachu, Clay | Dream & Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Technoblade & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF) & Everyone, Karl Jacobs/James (The Masquerade), Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, maybe some romantic relationships i add afterwards
Series: You Are My Home. You Are My Family. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2171316
Comments: 183
Kudos: 584





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, Dream was Cornelius and had left the Village That Went Mad to start the Dream SMP, meeting other people along the way. He's been stuck as a twenty-one-year-old for the past one hundred years and he knows that Karl can time travel.
> 
> After escaping from the prison, he basically pulls a Thanos and starts a farmland until he is disturbed.

Karl had signed the forms, had been through each of the security measures, and he had multiple occasions to back down and go back. He didn’t, because despite common belief, Karl and Dream had known each other for a much longer time than anyone else had.

He sucked in a deep breath as the lava lowered to reveal a man in a green hoodie and a crudely designed smile-mask, that had been cracked and worn down after years of use.

He stepped onto the moving bridge and waited for a minute or so to finally reach the cell, only to find Dream writing hurriedly onto one of his books. Karl stood there for a while with raised eyebrows.

Dream turned to look at him, smiling.

“Hey, Karl.”

The brunet winced at the raspy voice, not wanting anything more than to grab a healing potion out of nowhere and hand it to the prisoner. Setting that thought out of his mind for a while, he grabbed the book, which Dream had been holding out for him to take, and started reading the message.

_ I’m escaping tomorrow. _

Karl nodded, that was what they had discussed. Dream always threw the book away afterwards so that no one would find out about their secret(s). Karl grabbed a quill from the lectern and started scribbling out words quickly.

_ You sure? _

Dream nodded, taking the quill and book and writing, _ I’ll meet you and take care of your books. You’ll know where to find me after that. _

Karl raised his eyebrows once again, not quite sure if going back to his hometown was something that Dream should do. Dream rolled his eyes, which, once again, Karl could tell. He had gotten pretty good at reading the masked man, even when he was wearing his smiley mask. Dream nodded in affirmation. He was sure.

_ I’ve spent so long running away from my past. I have to go back. But anyways, tell me about your latest story. _

Karl smiled, taking a seat on the floor and gesturing for Dream to sit down too. Dream did so.

“I’m not sure if this story of mine takes place in the future or the past but it started off as a rich man who owned this huge mansion. He invited these other rich people, but it turns out that they weren’t real rich people…”

Dream listened to his friend talk animatedly, watching his face fall as he talked about the deaths of his other friends. He talked about James, about Learea and Sir Cumbucket (what a weird name) who were all nice enough until the time came, all being corrupted by evil. He talked about Sir Billiam The Third and the Butler, who had abused their power in hopes to gain more of it.

_ Why do all of your stories end in the same way? _ Dream asked via the book, slightly puzzled,  _ Everyone dies. _

_ Ask the In Between, _ Karl chuckled dryly, writing that down,  _ But I’m getting tired of the same ending as well. _

Dream nodded understandingly. Seeing people close to you die hurts, let alone seeing them die continuously. The Village That Went Mad, The Lost City of Mizu and now the Masquerade.

Some of them even involved him. The Village That Went Mad, Blockbeard’s Treasure and The Lost City Of Mizu being prime examples. 

_ (The last one caused him pain to hear because apparently his actions had been taken in the wrong way and had led to someone committing crimes in his name.) _

“Why don’t you try to rewrite how the story ends?”

Dream offered that suggestion as though it was obvious. He spoke this time, flinching at the pain in his throat when he did so. Karl winced, wishing once again that he had a healing potion with him.

As far as he knew, Dream’s hands were pretty fucked up too- he had been punching the obsidian walls and it was possible that his wrist was broken. When Karl found out, he had made a (kind of?) sturdy improvised splint out of pieces of fabric and a few pieces of wood that were lying around somewhere- possibly from the chest, crafting table and whatnot- and had tended to Dream’s hands, which had been bleeding pretty badly.

Dream had sighed, and Karl had known what was going through the immortal man’s thoughts. And yet, he wasn’t able to assure the other that it was completely untrue.

“I can’t do that, Dream. Time has its own way of twisting our choices into something it wants. We never know the outcome of whatever actions we take. Every action has an unforeseen consequence.”

“Interesting. So no matter what you did, it would end up however it was supposed to end?”

“Exactly,” Karl nodded, “It’s the same with every single story. Time always has a way.”

“That’s lifted a weight off of my chest,” Dream chuckled, once again flinching at the pain that simple action caused him, “But it’s been replaced by something completely different.”

Karl’s eyes softened in understanding. It had taken him not-very-long to accept the fact that no matter what, he wasn’t in control. Whoever was in the In Between was. He wasn’t used to having much power, but for someone like Dream, a puppet-master, a great manipulator, someone actually with power, it must be difficult to know that he was not in control of his situation.

“It was nice of you to visit. Sapnap visited me, y’know?” Dream smiled sadly, which was visible since his mask had been pushed up to only cover his eyes and nose, “He said he would kill me if I would escape.”

“... I’m sorry,” Karl said, not knowing what else to say in this kind of a situation. He knew Sapnap was a large part of Dream’s life, taking the place of the masked man’s brother, something that was an achievement- Dream wasn’t really trusting of anyone after what had happened to the Village That Went Mad, “I know how much he and George meant to you.”

“Thank you.”

“I-uh, I think my time is up,” Karl muttered awkwardly.

“Me too,” Dream nodded.

“Are you sure about your decision?”

“Yes.”

And Karl’s eyes met Dream’s, the man had taken off his mask. Determination shined in his forest-green eyes.

_ “I’ve destroyed so much throughout my life. It’s about time I try to change.” _

And he would start by helping out one of his oldest friends. And then, maybe becoming someone his family could be proud of. 

And Karl understood that very well.

Dream might have changed into someone horrible- a manipulator, a puppet master, corrupted with power and control- but he wanted to change. And that made all the difference, at least to him. Maybe not to other people, but Karl was proud already.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot is thickening!!

Karl handed Dream each of his books carefully, making sure not to damage them in the process. If the deity in the In Between was anything to go by, the books were too important to face any sort of damage.

“Chill out, Karl,” Dream smiled, mask hanging off towards the side of his face, “You trust me, right?”

Karl looked the 121-year-old, who was stuck in a 17-year-old’s body, in the eyes.

“I do,” Karl nodded, “But I need to make sure that the books are not harmed. Please don’t get caught. I worry for you as well.”

“You don’t need to,” Dream replied, taking the books and placing them carefully in a handcrafted and (slightly) worn down leather bag, “I know what I’m doing. You’ll know where to find me. I’ll be waiting in case of any emergency.”

Karl nodded, pulling the other in for a quick friendly hug and then pulling away before it got awkward. He handed Dream another bag, full of supplies Dream might need, along with his tools, like his pickaxe and axe, “I’ll see you soon, with more stories and more books. Take some healing potions and food for the road, please.”

“I’ll do that,” Dream nodded, and Karl quickly swept away a tear, “Don’t cry, I won’t be too far.”

“It’s not every day your best friend goes away, Dream,” Karl sighed, “And you’ll be hunted down by so many people. I wish I could join you.”

“But you can’t,” Dream placed his hands on the brunet’s shoulders comfortingly, “I need you to stay here, to report to me about the situation and take care of them for me. I need you to promise me that you’ll take care of Sapnap for me, Karl. And be safe yourself, we can’t have the In Between’s chosen dying.”

“I promise.”

Pulling the brunet into another quick hug and pulling away quickly, Dream fixed his netherite chestplate and other armor, that Karl had somehow stolen back from Tommy when he had the chance, and sheathed his netherite sword. The bag full of books had been placed carefully in his arms, with a map placed carefully inside, since that was one of the things that could not actually cause harm to the books, and his supply bag had been slung across his shoulders.

“You promise me you’ll be safe, Dream. Do not get caught.”

“I promise. And do you even know me? If I wanted to, I could disappear off the face of the Earth for as long as I want. I have my communicator again, thanks to you. If you ever need anything, even if it’s for something trivial, you message me privately, and I’ll come as soon as I can.”

Karl nodded solemnly, and Dream, with a two-fingered salute, turned around and ran, making sure no one saw him. Karl looked around for a few seconds to make sure no one saw him near that area, and turned around and left for his house.

Dream fixed his mask, running across the forest. Thanks to his practice with manhunts, he had plenty of stamina and was fast enough. He would have to make camp for the night somewhere or the other, but it was natural, since the Village That Went Mad, as it was known now, at least to him and Karl- to most, it was just another abandoned village (no one really cared what had happened there, as long as it didn’t involve them)- was, unlike what he told Karl, fairly far away. 

He had been running for a pretty long time, but he wasn’t sure how long it was. Finding a good place to set up camp for the night- it didn’t have any mobs nearby, at least for now, and was a pretty open area, which meant the stars and the moon were visible. 

_ “Set up camp,”  _ was a slight exaggeration. Dream didn’t need a sleeping bag, or a bed, or anything really. He was absolutely fine sleeping on the grass, it was soft and comfortable.

_ (And besides, he, and Sapnap, and George and Bad had done this before when they had gone camping. They had forgotten their sleeping bags, so Bad suggested they try sleeping underneath the stars. It was peaceful, and nice. And comforting, in a way) _

Dream felt his stomach clench painfully with hunger. He had missed his meal of raw potatoes (really, who would miss that?), and had been running a couple of miles. He placed the bag of books down by the trunk of the tree, and stretched his arms out, feeling them cramp slightly because of holding them in the same position. He sat down next to the bag, and decided to see what all Karl had packed.

His netherite pickaxe, and netherite axe (Nightmare, he remembered fondly), was packed. Somehow, Karl was able to retrieve a lot of his old stuff. He had to hand it to the brunet, he was a handy person to have, and an even better friend.

There were a few pieces of bread and some apples, some bottles of water, and some healing potions that Karl somehow had the time to brew, thank God, and there was a green sheet of fabric. 

Raising his eyebrows, Dream pulled it out. To say he was surprised when he found out that Karl replicated his old cloak, from his times undertaking the name ‘Cornelius,’ would be an understatement. Karl had been losing his memories, but somehow, he was able to remember the design and the details of the forest green cloak.

A note fell out.

_ Hey Dream, _ it read, _ I somehow remembered your cloak’s design- it could be because of some of the illustrations I drew in my diaries, I’m not sure yet- but I also remembered how much you liked it. I learnt how to sew too! If you want, you can wear the replica whenever you want. I’ve packed some food and water- whatever I could gather with the amount of stuff I had to collect and the time I had- and some potions for whenever you need them, and I was able to take your stuff back from Tommy and Tubbo and the rest of the SMP. From, Karl. _

Dream smiled fondly, eyes softening as he read the letter. He grabbed an apple and bit into it, not wanting to finish off the rest of the food in case he couldn’t find any on his way to the abandoned village.

He draped the cloak around himself like a comforting blanket after placing everything back in place, and fell asleep watching the stars, leaning on the tree trunk. He was hugging the bag of books underneath his makeshift blanket, to make sure no one took it- the rest of his stuff was expendable, but the books were priceless- and even if they tried, they would wake him up in the process. Thanks to his survival instincts (and maybe paranoia) he was a light sleeper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Keep an eye out for the next chapter!  
> And stay hydrated!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dream's had to make some detours, thanks to the search groups consisting of various members of the SMP.

Dream woke up at the crack of dawn, like he was used to doing. He stood up and draped the cloak across his shoulders and took out the map he had in the bag of books, to find out where to go. 

Once he figured that out, he placed it back into the bag and grabbed his supply bag, slinging that across his shoulders. He started walking.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Dream they’ve sent out squads to find you. Please tell me you’re hidden.] _

What did Dream actually expect? They obviously thought that he was going to pull something dangerous like he did before, and he couldn’t really blame them

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Define hidden because I’m currently walking in an open clearing heading towards the village.] _

That was the truth, he was in a fairly large clearing and was heading towards the path he had planned.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Hide then. They’re going to find you, I’ll try to stall as much as I can. Thankfully, Technoblade and Philza aren’t joining in. Bad, Punz and Ant are busy doing their Egg thing so that’s fairly lucky.] _

In a way, this would be kind-of like a manhunt, just with like twenty other people in the opposing team unlike the usual three, four, or five, and honestly, he was probably lucky that he had a head start, and that Techno and Philza didn’t decide on joining in on the hunt. Of course, it was a shame that Antfrost and Bad were busy (on doing whatever), since it would practically be like old times.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Okay, I’ll take the short cut. Don’t worry much.] _

There was a short cut, it was a slightly more dangerous path though. He would be able to go through it, it wasn’t that dangerous, and he did have a reputation for being reckless, especially in manhunts with Sapnap, George, Bad and Ant. It looked like he had to 

Dream climbed up a fairly high tree and sat onto one of its branches, taking out the map again and figuring out where to go. In situations like these, it was best to have a bird’s eye view to plan your movements.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: I think my group’s reached the clearing you were in. It’s good that you didn’t leave any trails. Did you have breakfast yet or not?] _

Dream smiled, he was lucky to have a ‘mole,’ of some sorts, helping him out secretly. And he was even luckier that that ‘mole,’ was his friend, and was someone who cared about him.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Not yet, I’m planning the route currently.] _

He conveniently forgot to mention that he was like twenty feet above the ground and was in danger of breaking a couple of bones if he jumped. He took out another apple and ate it, deciding to save the one apple and pieces of bread for later. He took a few sips from one of the water bottles and kept it back.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Okay, I think Tommy’s getting suspicious, I’ll probably contact you in a few hours. Sapnap and George are in the same group as me, just saying.] _

The child. The  **child** was leading a group to search for him, apparently. That was such a great decision on the SMP’s part, really. It could have been Sapnap, or George, or whoever else, and it would have been extremely beneficial to him if Karl was tasked with leading them.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Okay. I’ve gone towards the west so if you can take them in any other direction that would be preferable.] _

He stood up on the fairly sturdy branch and slung his supply bag on his shoulder, holding the bag of books in the same position once he had kept the map back in its place. He jumped to another tree, carefully calculating which branch to land on.

This went on for a few more trees, with Dream, having practiced parkour and done something like this many times, going from tree to tree until he was close enough to the ground to jump without injuring himself.

What was Dream going to do once he reached the Village That Went Mad? He was probably going to go look through the villager’s old chests to see if he could find any of their stuff that hopefully didn’t deteriorate with time. He wasn’t going to keep it, he was planning on making new chests and using them and the stuff he possibly could find to create graves for them. They deserved that at least.

After that, he might tear down the buildings and go looking for resources so he could build a new cottage for himself, along with a large farm. Yeah, that would be nice. And then maybe he could live a slightly more peaceful life.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Tommy’s not listening. He’s leading us West. Hurry up, I think I heard you jumping across trees or something to the right of us.] _

Shit, Dream cursed mentally, the child doesn’t listen, why the fuck would he think that? Dream jumped into the foliage and quickly hid. If he heard it from the right, he shouldn’t go to the left since that was likely where they were, so he ran off towards his right, which was somewhere in the northern direction- not exactly where he needed to go, but at least he would be slightly safe.

He found a cave nearby, and decided to dig into it to stay for a little while, because it was safer that way. It may take him longer to reach the village, but it was better than being caught again and putting him and potentially Karl in danger.

There was some coal, thankfully, so he was able to make some torches as well. 

He supposed he would be staying here for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep an eye out for the next chapters! And drink some water, that would be pog!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karl tries to help hide Dream while Dream makes a to-do list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was incredibly difficult to write since any ending wasn't very good, but I settled for this one!

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: I’m hidden in a cave, I’ll stay here for a while.] _

Dream sighed, lighting a torch and placing it on the wall of the small cave he had found, and had dug into (to make it a little bigger), which he had hidden with leaves and vines that camouflaged it, making it look like a natural part of the walls of the small hill inside the forest.

He kept his bag of supplies down next to the bag of books and took out the map, grabbing the torch from the wall and trying to figure out where the hell he was. He was somewhere in the forest. That had been established a long time ago.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Okay. I’m pretty sure even George and Sapnap are getting suspicious. I’ll contact you at nightfall. I’ll try to keep them as far away from the village as possible.] _

That was natural, Dream supposed, if they were getting suspicious, it was best to stay off the device until they weren’t. It was going to be pretty lonely, but what else could Karl do, except for avoiding suspicions and keeping the others out of the general area he was in.

He had a lot of time to think now.

Dream sighed, thinking was something he did not want to do. At least not right now. Maybe once he had reached his destination and had fixed everything up, and had created those graves he had been meaning to, he could talk to them. Talk to the first family he had ever had, and the first family he had lost.

It would be preferable if none of the groups from the SMP were to enter into the land that was now known as the Village That Went Mad, and if no one found out about it either. His past wasn’t something he wanted everyone to know.

_ (He remembered Catt, Helga, Jimmy, Robin and Cornelius, of course. He remembered the others who had died there as well.) _

Dream was an immortal man, some would even call him a God (which was true). He knew that humans did not live as long as he did, and that everyone who he cared about, who was in the human world, would die soon, someday.

Except for a few of course. Like Karl, and Technoblade, and Philza who all had some connection to some sort of God, or were Gods themselves without knowing it.

He had to tell Karl the truth about the In Between, and about his heritage, as soon as he could, or it might be too late. But how he was going to do that was unknown to him as of right now.

He also had to talk to Techno about the voices in his head, and tell him about the Blood God. At least if Philza hadn’t told him himself. The Angel of Death was unpredictable, so it was plausible. But then again, they had an agreement.

Dream might be all-powerful, but he wasn’t all-knowing. He couldn’t be all knowing- there was too much to know at once.

He grabbed a quill that had been packed along with the books and flipped over the map, deciding to make a to-do list. He had a lot to do so it was a good idea.

  * _Reach the abandoned village_


  * Repurpose the abandoned village


  * Make graves


  * Build a library


  * Talk to Karl


  * Talk to Techno


  * Talk to Philza



Most of the list was pretty basic to him, it had to be done no matter what. Whether it was for a sentimental reason or something that was needed for the safety of the server, it didn’t matter, it all had to be done, and it didn’t matter in which order.

Maybe he would make graves for Karl’s lost friends- even if they died in the future, he was sure he could do something about it. Maybe hide them somewhere so no one finds out? That could be done. And Karl would like it as well, and he owed Karl, for trying to forgive him even after what he had done.

The Regrets Of A God, Dream chuckled, that would make a good title for an autobiography, if he ever decided to sit down and write one. Maybe Karl would even allow him to keep it in his library, as a preserved tale of the God of Prime and the wrongdoings said God had tried so hard to correct.

_ (He remembered the times before L’Manburg, before the wars, where everyone lived together in peace. He remembered the times even before the SMP was created- with his first family, the first people to welcome him into their home with open arms. He had started wearing a mask after he reached twenty-one years old, since he knew he wasn’t going to age any time after that. He started lying about his age too, just to make sure his secret didn’t come out.) _

He wished he could turn back time. Karl could do something of that sort, but he couldn’t return everything back to normal, like it used to be. There were a few limitations to being a God: you might outlast everyone you care about, and once you had power, you only wanted more. Whether it be for noble reasons or for greed, Gods often wished for more powers than they had.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Can I read your books?] _

It would pass the time, and he needed to keep everything fresh in his memory, that was the only way he would be able to stay sane.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: K.] _

He decided to start off with the tale of the Village That Went Mad, reading about Jimmy, Helga, Robin, Catt and Cornelius amongst other characters, they would be just that- characters in a story- for people who hadn’t lived through them or known the truth about them.

At the end, he felt wetness on his cheeks. He had been crying, not much, but still crying. He wiped away the tears quickly, not used to showing vulnerability even when he was alone, but the fact that he was crying was welcomed as well- he hadn’t cried in so long, it had practically been a century. It was a welcome change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drink water, be safe and keep an eye out for the next chapter!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dream can finally reach the village that went mad!

Dream ran. Once Karl had told him that his group- he wasn’t sure about the others, but it seemed as though the group led by Tommy was the closest to him- had fallen asleep, he cleaned out any trace of him being there, packed up all of his stuff and started moving. 

He was sure that it would only take about a night for him to reach the abandoned village- he had planned out his route during the large amount of free time he had before- but that was only if there were no interruptions.

He front-flipped over a tree branch and decided to travel via them, just to make sure he didn’t leave any sort of trace on the ground. He jumped from tree branch to tree branch, making sure that those branches were sturdy enough for him to stand on.  
  


In the distance, he saw a bonfire-of-sorts, which he thought was the campsite for one of the search groups, possibly the one Karl was part of. The time traveler had been a huge help in escaping them.

He involuntarily clutched the bag of books in his arms tighter when he saw multiple mobs on the ground- the skeletons, spiders, zombies and creepers amongst others hadn’t seen him yet, but if they did, it was possibly game over since he probably wasn’t going to be able to protect the books and himself.

Trying to be much quieter so he didn’t grab their attention, he finally reached another clearing, which he had seen on the map. He now had to head towards a river in the North-East (since he was currently moving towards the North), and had to follow it towards his home village.

The path he had been planning to take before- before Tommy decided not to listen to Karl and move towards the West anyways- was going to be much shorter and much easier to travel through, but if this path was safer for him, he was going to use this path.

He jumped down from the tree, landing skillfully and without injuries, and headed towards the river, walking along the edge of the clearing and not in the open, which would have made him an easy target.

The sound of the river was welcome, since the silence was slowly killing him and left him too much time to think. He could focus on it. It was peaceful. His stomach clenched with hunger, he hadn’t been eating well- maybe an apple every so often, and in the prison, he was only given enough to not starve- but the hunger was nice to feel, almost.

Despite being a God, he had feelings too. He couldn’t die, but could be crippled and not recover, he could be weakened beyond recognition. He could feel love and hate, and he sometimes wanted to die, so that he could meet his loved ones once again.

It was common belief that the Gods were untouchable deities that were all-powerful and had no equal. They could be all-powerful, but they also had enemies. They couldn’t starve to death, as an example, but they would be fatigued and in pain. Even their bodies adapted to poor living conditions or good living conditions like humans.

And he was a perfect example of it. 

_[KarlJacobs whispers to you: I-I can’t remember! Where-]_

Pulling out his map to track his position before answering, he observed his surroundings. According to the map, he should be close to the village, just a few more turns.

_[Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: I’m practically at the village. What happened? What can’t you remember?]_

Dream was excited to visit the place once again, but he was also scared. What would he do if he couldn’t find the village, or couldn’t find enough resources to rebuild. There were so many things that could go wrong.

_[KarlJacobs whispers to you: Who’s next to me- I- there’s a child, a man wearing white goggles and someone wearing a white headband. I think I should know them, Dream. What’s going on?]_

He sat down at the base of the tree, keeping everything to the side and taking out his communicator.

_[Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: The child is TommyInnit, the man wearing the goggles is GeorgeNotFound and the man wearing the headband is your fiance, Sapnap. Do you remember what you’re doing?]_

Dream had dealt with Karl’s memory loss problems before. The best method was to first answer his questions and help him read his diaries. The latter wasn’t possible but he had to do what he could.

_[KarlJacobs whispers to you: No! What am I doing in the forest?!]_

And Dream spent some time explaining what had happened, and what was going on, trying to be brief but describing everything in detail. After that, he had to make sure of one thing.

_[Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Do you remember where the Village That Went Mad is? If you don’t, I’ll help you figure it out.]_

Dream decided that while he was there, he would study the In Between and try to help Karl figure out how to stop the deterioration of his memory. He had been friends (or acquaintances, whatever, that really didn’t matter) with the previous God of Time, and was able to access the In Between. Maybe if he stayed there for a while to investigate, he could find some sort of cure.

_[KarlJacobs whispers to you: I think. I’m not sure…]_

Dream sighed, it was a long way from the SMP, so he didn’t really expect him to be able to memorise it. 

_[Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Don’t worry about it, Karl. I’ll help you out whenever you need it. I’ve taken a little break right now, the village is right by me somewhere.]_

Dream smiled, mentally adding one more thing on his to-do list. He had to explore the In Between to find ways to help his oldest (and currently possibly only, he wasn’t sure about Philza or Techno yet) friend.

It was obvious that George and Sapnap weren’t his friends, let alone best friends, anymore. That was understandable. Even though he cared for them, he hurt them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> drink water, stay healthy, eat well and sleep well! you all matter <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dream has finally reached the village that went mad and somehow karl appears for comfort :D

_ [Dream whispers to you: Karl! Karl, I’m here- I’m back- I-] _

Karl froze up, not knowing what to respond. On one hand, it was happy news! On the other hand, Dream sounded stressed. And rightfully so, he hadn’t been there in a long time, and while the abandoned village had many happy memories, it had worse ones too.

“Karl, you okay?” Sapnap, as Dream told him, asked. He reminded him of James, his- well, he didn’t know what they were before James’ untimely and unexpected-but-still-expected death, but he was still going to assume- ex-boyfriend. God, it hurt still thinking about him.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Sap,” Karl grinned, “I’m just kinda worried.”

Sapnap nodded, and once he turned around, Karl picked up his communicator.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to Dream: Are you okay, Dream? I understand if it's overwhelming.] _

Karl sighed, he hadn’t been there either- which was obvious seeing as he literally forgot where it was- but he wanted to be there for his oldest (quite literally) friend.

“Hey, fellas, according to the map, there’s a river that leads to some sort of an abandoned village,” Tommy yelled, brandishing the map they had brought along, “Maybe Dream’s taking shelter there.”

“Um, Tommy, you didn’t listen to me before, but what if that’s too obvious?” Karl pointed out, “Dream’s a master manipulator and a great strategist, you know that first-hand. Couldn’t this just be a decoy?”

Sapnap and George nodded in agreement, and Karl sighed in relief. Tommy shrugged, as if that made sense but he didn’t believe it quite yet. Karl’s eyes caught a piece of fabric in one of the trees- it was hard to see it, however, since the trees and the fabric were literally almost the same shade of the same color. He correctly identified it as a piece of Dream’s cloak.

“I have enderpearls. I can go check it out if you want,” Karl offered, but he could see that Tommy, George and especially Sapnap were skeptical about it, “Hey, if there’s any problem I’ll just enderpearl back or run away. I have my communicator too.”

He patted the pocket of his hoodie that he kept his communicator, and Sapnap raised his eyebrows.

“Are you sure?”

Karl nodded, and Tommy shrugged once again.

“Come back to us alive, Karl,” Tommy warned, “You still have your wedding. That’s taking place in my hotel. If you die before that, it’ll give my hotel bad cred.”

Karl laughed, and snatched the map that was in Tommy’s hand- receiving a string of curses from the blond teen- and pulled out an enderpearl, tossing it as far as he could, which was the end of the clearing. He waved from there once again and tossed another enderpearl in an ongoing chain.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: I’m… fine, I think. Don’t worry about me.] _

Karl smiled sadly. He was within a walking distance of the village, if he was correct, and was walking towards where he thought the village was. According to the map, he had to turn.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to Dream: I’m here, Dream. Look behind you. It’s okay.] _

He watched with a small laugh as Dream jumped, looking left and right before turning to see him.

However his cheerful mood quickly fell as he saw Dream’s bloodshot eyes and tear-stained cheeks. He rushed over as fast as he could and enveloped his friend in a warm hug, which the immortal man leaned into.

“How-”

“They’re in the clearing nearby,” Karl said urgently, “I can lie to them. It’s not like I haven’t done enough of it.”

“I-” Dream sighed, interrupting himself, “It’s been so long, I thought I wouldn’t be as affected.”

“They were still your family, Dream. And you may have buried the pain, that doesn’t mean you got rid of it.”

They stayed in the hug for a while, and Karl pulled away just to put his arms on his hips and grin sadly, “Well, I’ll help you look through these houses to see if you can find anything!”

Dream smiled thankfully. He definitely needed the extra support.

They went up to the first house- Catt’s, if he remembered correctly- and saw it absolutely ruined. Wood was rotting in some places and the house itself- made of stone- was in shambles. There was nothing inside it that could be saved.

The same went for all the other houses. Dream turned to Karl, smiling ruefully and with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“It’s been a century. I should have expected this. But for some reason, I kept hope that there would be something to bury, maybe something like an axe or whatever. But- it’s all gone. Maybe if I came here earlier, I could have done something, but me being stupid and cowardly just got rid of any chance I had of giving my family a proper funeral and burial.”

Karl hugged the taller man, trying to comfort him. But he himself wasn’t sure what to say, he had also kept hope that there would be some trace of whatever.

“You know what? Maybe I can ask some sort of a good sculptor in the SMP to carve out a sculpture for each of them based on the sketches I have of everyone in my diary! Then, I’ll come back and I’ll give them to you, we can have a burial for them too!”

Dream wiped off his tears, “Maybe you can get some made for James, Learea, Lord Sebastian and Oliver- if that was his name. We can create a memorial for them too.”

“That would be nice,” Karl nodded, “I think we can do that as well.”

“Of course”

“Have you eaten?” Karl asked with raised eyebrows.

“Not really,” Dream shrugged, “I’m not used to eating much, but I can try.”

“Please do.”

_ [Sapnap whispers to KarlJacobs: Karl, where are you?! It’s been a pretty long time. Are you safe?] _

“You need to go, huh?”

Karl bit his lip nervously, “Yeah. I’ll be back, though. And I’ll be keeping this map so I can remember where you are.”

“Alright. Please visit.”

“Of course.”

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to Sapnap: I’m coming back right now. I couldn’t find Dream. But I’m fine, don’t worry.] _

Two blatant lies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading and keep an eye out for the next chapter   
> drink water, eat healthy, sleep well and stay safe :D


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is sort of a filler but also not?  
> i have no clue.

Dream grinned, looking up at the stars from the roof of his little cottage, with his mask hanging off the roof. He held one part of the ribbon to prevent it from falling. There was a beautiful view of the stars and various constellations from the roof, it was built in a clearing that once had an abandoned village on top of it.

Karl had gotten the stone statues within four weeks, and they held a funeral, just the two of them- the only two people who knew the people being buried there. Both of them had cried, finally being able to mourn the loss of their loved ones.

Dream had asked Karl if he wanted to mourn people from the future: Benjamin, Cleetus and Charles. Karl had refused, saying that if they were found, it could ruin the timeline. Dream nodded understandingly.

His cottage wasn’t very complex. A gravel path made its way to the main house, which was made of spruce wood and cobblestone, with two lanterns lighting up the porch. Inside it, there were two floors: the first one had a kitchen and a living room while the one upstairs had a bedroom and a bathroom. The living room had some bookshelves, a couch and a crafting table (not for that, you nasties). The kitchen had a kitchen island and a furnace, along with some other stuff. The bedroom had a bed (of course) and a few bookshelves. Torches lit up the rooms.

To the left of the cottage, there was a farm, which grew most of the food he ate: wheat for bread, carrots, potatoes (even though he was sick of them) and a few pumpkins and melons. Even though he didn’t eat much, he was slowly improving and was getting used to eating better and more food. At least he didn’t puke every time he had more food.

He could get fish and water from the river nearby and apples from the trees that grew in the forest.

Kale hadn’t visited after the funeral they held, and that worried him. Was Karl stuck in some sort of a different time? If so, was he in any danger? Then, he agreed that when Karl called him the “Mom Friend,” it was justified.

Karl could handle himself. He had been time travelling multiple times. But just in case, Dream planned on making a trip to the In Between himself to check on his progress.

Other than Karl, no one came to visit him- that was obvious since he was in hiding.

_ [Dream whispers to Ph1LzA: Have you talked to Techno recently.] _

Dream sat up, with his communicator in hand as he waited for a response. Something else from his to-do list would be crossed out if he had.

_ [Ph1LzA whispers to you: I have talked to him. I live with him. But I didn’t tell him about what you wanted to tell him. I’m leaving that to you.] _

For some reason, the Angel of Death seemed to trust Dream. It wasn’t common- only Karl up until now seemed to be able to trust him. But Philza did too, apparently. That was probably why he left such an important task to him. He was thankful that the Angel of Death did, in fact, trust him. It was much more beneficial for him.

_ [Dream whispers to Ph1LzA: Okay.] _

He didn’t really know what else to say. That was all he could say about it, actually. Aside from Karl- who had immense power and didn’t know how to use it properly- and Techno, Philza was the only person who could intimidate Dream.

_ [Ph1LzA whispers to you: Techno wants to talk to you as well.] _

Well that was extremely lucky.

_ [Ph1LzA whispers to you: Where are you?] _

He couldn’t disclose his personal information like that, now could he? If someone like, Ranboo, for example, accidentally found out about it, maybe he would disclose it to someone else, say Tommy, and that wouldn’t be good, would it? But maybe Philza would be careful.

_ [Dream whispers to Ph1LzA: xxx xxx xxx. Don’t disclose my coordinates. No one can know except you and Techno (and one other person).] _

All he could do was give coordinates and wait for them to reach him. And what he said was true. Nobody else could know, otherwise he would be put into that horrible cell again.

Dream jumped down from the roof to the balcony and entered inside, going down the stairs and entering the living room. He picked up a book with a green and pink swirl. Karl’s symbol.

It opened up a passageway underneath the cottage, which housed his netherite armor and tools, his map and his nether portal, amongst other important things.

Those important things being the books. He had also written a few about his life and about the Gods that came before him, which Karl- at least when he visited last- nodded and said that they would make a valuable addition to his own collection of books.

Nowadays, he kept his netherite stuff hidden and decided to use his regular tools- made of wood, stone and iron. And his leather-or-iron armor that didn’t have any enchantments.

He, being an expert survivalist, had been able to get resources fairly easily. He didn’t have a mine or anything but he had traveled towards the cave he had found and hidden in and found out that it was larger than he expected.

Dream flipped through the books kept there and picked up the book on the Blood God, deciding to keep it out for Techno.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Dream? Hey Dream, you there?] _

Dream grinned, thankful that the time traveler had been able to contact him. He started typing back.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Yeah? What happened, is everything okay?] _

Now he was starting to get worried. But could you really blame him? Karl Jacobs took too many risks for it to be healthy. Sure, he might be being hypocritical but he had a point, did he not?

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Everything’s fine. Just wanted to check up on you. You’ve been adding your books to the library right?] _

Of course he had. Writing had become one of his hobbies ever since his imprisonment, and he quickly figured out he was good at it, despite whatever Tommy said about his novels- which were assigned to him by the child himself.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: Yeah.] _

He honestly didn’t know what Karl was expecting.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: Good! Thank you for that! You’ve been around for longer, old man, so you probably know everything in better detail.] _

Oh so he was going there- he may be old but he wasn’t old. Technically he was seventeen, just stuck at that age.

_ [Dream whispers to KarlJacobs: I. AM. NOT OLD.] _

Exactly. Point proven.

_ [KarlJacobs whispers to you: That sounds like something an old person would say, grandpa.] _

Oh that little-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> should puffy and niki be made gods or at least immortals by dream?  
> they are his mother-figures and im not sure if the entire syndicate along with dream and karl should be immortals. that all depends on you all 
> 
> if puffy and niki shouldnt be made immortals, should they die or not? i already have a plan for ranboo so dont worry about him for now :)))  
> keep an eye out for the next chapter and stay healthy!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dream and techno and philza have a talk

Dream grabbed three bowls and three out of the cupboard in the kitchen and set them down on his coffee table in front of Philza and Techno. He then went to get the potato stew and a ladle to serve it with.

“I have to be honest, I didn’t expect you guys to come this soon.”

“What did you expect mate?” Philza grinned, “I have wings.”

“That you do, Phil,” Dream cracked a grin, shifting his mask to the side of his face, “That you do.”

Philza and Technoblade eyed their food suspiciously and looked at the very little amount of food Dream was eating. The food looked good enough, so they took a few bites. It was okay, not as good as Philza’s, but still good.

“Why are you eating such less food, Dream?” Techno’s monotone voice drawled out, as if he was disinterested- which he wasn’t because if he was, why would he ask, “I’m surprised you cook this well.”

“I’m not used to eating much,” Dream admitted, “I’ve just gotten used to eating three meals in a day.”

“What?” Philza asked, confused, “Why wouldn’t you be used to eating properly, mate?”

“Well, I was put in prison,” the immortal man shrugged, “I didn’t exactly have a good meal plan there. I was served raw potatoes, and that too like one potato twice a day. You can see how I got sick of them.”

“You were put in prison? Like, your inescapable prison- the one you made?!” Techno interrogated, “That was why you wanted to use your favor?!”

“Mhm,” Dream shrugged, “But that’s in the past now, the soon-to-be God of Time helped me escape. That’s a part of the reason I wanted to talk to you.”

“Okay?”

“You hear voices, don’t you?” Dream frowned, looking Techno directly in the eyes, “They demand blood, don’t they? It was expected.”

“How do you know about that?” Techno asked, almost defensively, “And what do you mean, ‘it was expected?’”

“Nothing, nothing,” Dream grinned, raising his hands up in surrender, “It’ll be easier if-”

“I’ll let you handle this, Dream,” Philza nodded, “I’ll go feed Steve.”

If you do not know who Steve is, he is Technoblade’s (adorable and cuddly) emotional support bear. Philza went to the kitchen to grab another bowl and filled it with potato stew to give to Steve. Meanwhile, Dream got up, scowling and flipping Philza off, to which the older man chuckled, and grabbed the book on the Blood God and handed it to Techno gently, making sure not to ruin the binding or whatever could happen to ruin a book.

“Read it. You’ll understand. Don’t ruin it, it has to be preserved.”

And for an hour (the book was short), there was absolute silence, as Technoblade read the book intently, happy to finally be able to figure out what was going on with him and the voices he had nicknamed,  _ “Chat.” _

Strangely, there wasn’t much conflict between his, like, 20000 voices about Dream and they were eerily quiet. Techno’s mind somehow felt like his own again as he read the book. Technoblade figured out why at the end.

_ (While you cannot kill a God, you can seal their souls away in a different dimension, or even a different time, if you could control the dangerous element. The previous God Of Time decided to abuse his powers in order to seal every single deity that existed and take supreme power. Why? I do not know. However, two survived: the Angel of Death- Philza Minecraft- and the God of Prime, DreamWasTaken. The previous Blood God met the same fate as many others, after which the two survivors decided to find replacements- or successors, a better word for it- for them. The previous God of Time was punished in the same way he wrongfully punished others, and the story of the Blood God continues with a man nicknamed, “The Blade,” the mighty warrior, Technoblade.) _

“You’ve got to be joking,” Technoblade chuckled, “You mean I was destined to be stuck with these... voices in my head?”

“We aren’t, and you aren’t stuck with them,” Dream placed a hand comfortingly on Techno’s shoulder, “You can learn to control them.”

“How?!” Techno snapped, pushing Dream’s hand off of his shoulder (which hurt, Dream wasn’t going to lie) and glaring at him, “They ask for blood! I can’t control them! Sooner or later they’re going to ask for something I can’t give them, or something I’ll regret giving them!”

“They only want what’s good for you. They warned you about the Egg, remember? Calm down, Techno. Philza and I are going to be there to help you whenever they get too much.”

**_(LISTEN TO HIM! E! E! E! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! HE KNOWS OF OUR EXISTENCE! POKE HIM! FEEL HIS BLOOD! NO, YOU IDIOTS, HE’S IMMORTAL, HE CAN’T DIE! EVEN BETTER! TORTURE HIM! STAB HIM! DON’T, HE’S A FRIEND! HE HELPED US! E! E! E! DREAM IS GOOD!)_ **

“They’re asking for your blood now,” Techno spoke calmly, or as calm as he could be, “What am I supposed to do?”

“What you have done all your life,” Dream smiled, “There’s a reason we chose you, Techno, and not anyone else. You fight for what is right and what you believe in, and you will continue to do that. You can talk to me or Philza whenever you want and we’ll be here for you. I may have been evil once, but I’m trying to put that behind me and start anew. And for the record, if they want my blood, they can have it. I’m not going to die anyways.”

“Strangely, that was one of the arguments made for you being stabbed,” Techno grinned, “They told me to stab you because you wouldn’t die. Most of the voices are pro-Dream, apparently.”

“As they should be.”

And at that moment, Philza entered the house once again, only to be glared at by Dream, “So, I assume the talk went well.”

“NO THANKS TO YOU, GRANDPA!”

“So, Dream, would you like to ally with the Syndicate?” Technoblade asked, switching the subject, “It consists of me, Philza, Puffy, Nihachu and Ranboo, and you if you want. Our current mission is pro-omelet.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Dream cracked a grin, “I’ll join.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed! look out for the next chapter and stay healthy!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after tommy displays the piece of the egg, almost everyone was possessed. the survivors had to separate into little groups. here's the aftermath!

“Tommy, I think we all should know why you thought it would be a good idea to keep a piece of the Egg- you know, the one that’s controlling everything?!” Karl asked Tommy, frustrated, “I don’t mean to be mean, but I am actually fucking done.”

Sapnap, George, Ghostbur and Tubbo- the rest of their little group that had managed to escape, losing some of the other survivors who had gone in a separate direction- watched from the sidelines.

Tommy looked at Karl, startled, “Wha-”

“No, wait, I need to vent a little. So you all decide that what’s best for your hotel was to keep a piece of the Egg- like, the Egg- on display. Just because you, and maybe me, I’m not sure yet, are immune to it, doesn’t mean everyone else is!” Karl sighed, rubbing his forehead. Sapnap stepped up, placing a hand on the brunet’s shoulder to try and calm him down. It backfired when Karl shrugged it off, “You know what? Maybe I’m the problem. Every single story- except for a select few- has gone wrong and I’ve been there.”

Tommy looked at the secretly-a-time-traveler with wide eyes, fearfully trying to get Karl to calm down- the entire situation reminded him of how he was exiled and he didn’t want to be reminded of that. Meanwhile, Karl’s frustrated rant turned into mutters and mumbles.

Ghostbur handed Karl some blue, helping the brunet calm down a little.

There was a moment of silence after Karl finished his rant.

“Look, I- uh- I’m sorry, Tommy,” Karl apologized after a while, “We’ll figure out how to fix this, I shouldn’t be blaming just you.”

“It- uh, it’s okay, big man,” Tommy patted the brunet’s shoulder nervously, “It was my fault too.”

Karl pulled out his communicator, typing furiously to alert a certain immortal and masked man that he would be coming to visit, and would be bringing… guests. Also inquiring about some certain information.

“How are we going to fix this mess?” Tubbo spoke up, “Tommy’s the only one immune to the Egg’s influence.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Karl cracked a grin, making everyone look at him in confusion, “There’s Technoblade, and Ranboo, and Philza, and Puffy, and Sam Nook along two others. One of which you are looking at right now.”

“Who’s the other?” George asked, which was a sentiment agreed to by everyone else, “And would they be able to break a block off of the Egg without being harmed?”

“I would assume so,” Karl nodded, “But you all might hate both me and him for bringing you to him.”

“Who cares about that anymore?!” Sapnap asked him, “As long as he can help us take back the server, we can tolerate him.”

“Great!” Karl smiled happily, “I’m not sure how happy he’ll be- if he’ll even be happy at all- if I bring Tommy and Tubbo, but I think you and George would be welcome. I’m not sure though.”

“This dude you’re talking about sounds suspiciously like someone we know, Karl,” Tubbo asked with eyes narrowed, and Karl rubbed his neck nervously, “What’s his name?”

“His name is- uh- Cornelius!” Karl stuttered out nervously, “He lives in an abandoned village that he turned into a cottage and farmland. I’ve known him for a really long time.”

“Alright, we’ll visit him then!” Tubbo smiled, “Is there anything we need to do?”

“Yeah, if there are any symbols even close to resembling my swirl,” He pointed to the symbol on the jacket, and looked at everyone in the eyes, “Do not touch those unless he allows you to. And he is very protective of his family- or his family’s graves. Do not touch those or even go near them. Even if he’ll be okay if you guys visit him- that also if he’s alright with it- he will not trust you.”

“You know him the best, I suppose,” Tommy shrugged, “As long as he can help, we’ll do whatever you say.”

Karl smiled sadly, fiddling with his communicator, “That’s if he wants to help. I can’t speak for him, but it’s pretty likely that he doesn’t want to take part in any more wars. I’m pretty sure he’s retired, kinda like Techno.”

“We’ll just have to try!”

“Alright then, I have the map I used to get there, we’ll just follow it then,” Karl nodded, taking out the map and deciding to plan out the path, “I was planning on making a trip to visit him anyways, since I need to drop off something.”

“Wait, is that the abandoned village we thought Dream might be hiding in?” George asked, pointing towards said village, “Is that why you went there? Because Cornelius was there?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s labelled ‘The Village That Went Mad,’” Sapnap pointed out, “That’s a really ominous name.”

“I know,” Karl sighed, rolling up the map and placing it in his pocket, “We head towards the West.”

“Okay, Big Man,” Tommy grinned, “Lead the way!”

And if Dream didn’t shoot them with a crossbow straight away, that would be preferable. Because he didn’t want to be responsible for Tubbo’s, TommyInnit’s, Sapnap’s and George’s deaths.

_ [Dream whispers to you: Karl. You better not be bringing who I think you’re bringing. If I see them and you can’t stop me in time, I will, most probably, shoot them in the chest.] _

Karl sighed. He’d just have to stop him in time, then. He did not want their deaths to be on his- or Dream’s- conscience. And, they would lose their fighting chance against the Eggpire, since Tommy was immune to the Egg, somehow.

He placed his communicator back in his pocket and took out the pocket watch Dream had given him when he was Cornelius. He clutched it in his hand and smiled, to the confusion of everyone in their group.

“Hey, big man!” Tommy grinned, giving him finger guns, “Can I check that out?”

Karl scowled, “No.”

And that was that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed and stay safe! keep a lookout for the next chapter!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorta an extra/short but im still counting it as a full chapter lmao

Puffy and Niki watched as their duckling tended to the graves- who were they for?- and placed flowers at the foot of the gravestone. They could feel him smiling softly and saw him take off his mask to place two fingers on his lips, and touch the graves.

His green eyes shone with tears, but for some reason, that wasn’t what surprised them. What surprised them the most was the fact that their child- whose seventeenth birthday had passed a while ago- still looked seventeen.

“I wish I could die,” Dream smiled and whispered wistfully, “I’d be able to join everyone else when they do.”

“What?” Puffy muttered without thinking, and Dream looked at the place where the two were hiding.

Niki glared at Puffy, but it held no malice, because the other woman’s sentiments were echoed by her. What was going on and what secrets was their duckling hiding?

“Mom?!” Dream exclaimed, “What- Please tell me you didn’t hear that.”

“We did,” Niki nodded, looking Dream directly in the eyes, “Could you explain?.”

Dream frowned, as if having a mental argument with himself, whether he should tell them or not, and after a while, nodded, “Follow me.”

The two followed the apparently-a-teen into the small cottage and sat down as he grabbed the book he was reading beforehand and gave it to them. The two looked at the title nervously, “The Regrets Of The Prime God.” If they remembered correctly, Dream was the self-proclaimed God of Prime. So this book was written about him.

“Be careful. The book has to be preserved.”

_ (In the past, there was a God. The God of Prime. Under him, servers flourished. His teacher, the Angel of Death, was proud. But something came to interrupt the peace. The previous God of Time wasn’t always evil, but he slowly decided to wrongfully punish those who helped the Prime God. Only him and the Angel of Death, Philza, survived, sealing away the former God of Time’s soul just like he did to so many others. Philza and I went our separate ways after that, and I met some people I was close to, and people I wanted to protect. I slowly became more human at heart, but I outlasted them nevertheless. I’ve forgotten about most of my powers. The only ones I remember are being able to revive people, and being immortal. I don’t want to use the first… skill, to say the least, yet. I want to save it for the right time.) _

“What?”

Niki stared at the book in shock, and Puffy looked at her self-proclaimed son in bewilderment.

“Yeah,” Dream smiled sadly, “I’m immortal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed! the next chapter is something i really thought about and it sets the basis for the chapters after it and the sequel (im not saying there might be a sequel but im totally saying i have a sequel to this work completely planned out)
> 
> be safe and healthy everyone!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> decided to feed you all early ;P  
> here's the chapter you all have been waiting for and the one ive been hyping up!!

“XD?” A familiar voice asked from behind Dream as Dream worked on his netherite armor in the secret library he had built, “Wait- no, you’re Past Dream.”

Dream turned around, only to be faced with a much more powerful-looking Karl Jacobs, who seemed to have accepted the role of the God of Time, “Probably, yeah, since you seem to have taken the role of the Time God, which I haven’t given to you yet.”

“Logical as always,” Karl grinned, leaning onto the side of the nether portal, “Anyways, Future You told me about this encounter so I have to talk to you.”

That made sense. If this impacted the future, it would become some sort of a loop. Something would happen to make Karl go back in time, and he would cause that event all over again. It was an interesting topic to study, to say the least. Maybe he’d do an in-depth study about it sooner or later, since currently he had nothing to do.

“Mhm?” Dream nodded, turning towards the books and organizing them again. He had been taking them out and reading them multiple times, since he was pretty free now, “Go ahead.”

Karl looked at the superior in concern, having second thoughts as to if he should tell him anything about whatever he had come here to.

“This is serious,” Karl frowned, “I’m here to tell you that you sacrifice yourself for past me.”

“I would do that without you instructing me to do so.”

That made Karl smile. It was nice to know that Dream cared so much about someone people thought was a secondary character in the stories of their lives. He was happy that he was someone Dream cared about and someone he considered a friend.

“I expected that. But seriously, this is like _the_ sacrifice, you come super close to death in this one.”

“Thank God. I mean, thank Me.”

If he did, in fact, die, he’d finally be able to meet everyone else, and know if he did a good job. That would have been great.

“You’ll figure out when you have to do that,” Karl shrugged, fiddling around with the multiple pocket watches he had, “When you do, I’ll be able to teleport and save you. You’ll spend your time in the In Between healing.”

The In Between. A place that held many secrets about many things. About their goldy status and their powers, and most definitely about Karl’s time travelling skills. If he spent time there, he could figure out so much more than what he already knew, and maybe even unlock more of his powers along the way.

“Why can’t I just die?” Dream groaned in frustration, “It’ll be better for my conscience!”

“Well, I’d feel terrible, for one, since I wouldn’t be able to see you ever again,” Karl grinned sadly, “And two, your time in the In Between makes you much more powerful than you are now. It also helped me unlock my actual powers and us figure out the In Between’s true intentions.”

“If you put it that way,” Dream grinned, shifting his mask towards the side of his face, “I can’t really die on you guys now, huh?”

“Exactly,” Karl nodded, “You become super powerful in the future, remember that. You help us all a lot and me, you, Techno, Philza, Tubbo and Tommy and Ranboo like, practically move into the In Between."

“...We are all happy?”

“Of course. And Ghostbur hangs around a lot too. Many other people are like us, since you figured out how,” Karl nodded, placing his hands on the taller’s shoulders comfortingly, “Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do, Karl,” Dream rolled his eyes good-naturedly, “If I didn’t, what would you be doing here?”

“Exactly. You’ll know when to… ah, sacrifice- that sounds weird- yourself, and I’ll be there to help you like you helped me,” Karl smiled comfortingly, and pulled the fellow immortal into a hug.

The two pulled away after a while, and Dream smiled.

“I never got to thank you for whatever you’ve done for me,” Karl grinned, giving the God of Prime a two-fingered salute, “I wouldn’t have become even half as powerful, or half as good as what I do, if you weren’t there. Also, past me just made some sort of an idiotic move right about this time so you should keep an eye out for that.”

And Dream smiled, happy that he was able to help at least one of his friends in the near future. Looks like he wasn’t as much of a villain as everyone else thought he was.

“See ya’ later, Old Man.”

Karl knew just how to annoy him didn’t he. He wasn’t old, for fucks sake! He was just stuck at the age of seventeen and had been stuck for the past one hundred and four years. He was still technically seventeen! He didn’t know how many times he would have to prove to the time traveler that he wasn’t an old man, because he just couldn’t get it into his head.

“See you later, Karl. And I am not old.”

Karl laughed, and a pink-and-green portal opened up. Karl stepped into it and waved a goodbye to the God of Prime, which was returned.

Other than the fact that one time travelling God known as Karl Jacobs was annoying as hell, what idiotic move did that very same time travelling God make? It couldn’t be that bad. It probably wasn’t that bad.

Right?

The only thing that came to mind currently was that Karl accidentally let the name “Cornelius,” slip out or that Karl might have let others know about their secrets.

But Karl wouldn’t have done any of those accidentally or without his permission, right?

Right?

Disregarding the thought, an idea came to his head. He had some paints he had made using some flowers and some ink he had found nearby. He went outside, and on his door, he decided to paint a couple of things.

Tommy’s music discs, Philza’s wings, Techno’s sword, and a green-and-pink swirl for Karl. In the center of it, he decided to paint his mask. He would add more things to it when he felt as though it was necessary. But as long as the painting was there, it would remind him of his objectives. 

To unite everyone and make his family whole again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed! have fun and be safe and healthy!  
> keep a look out for the next chapter!
> 
> (i edited this because i dont want too many people becoming gods, so we're sticking with techno, philza, karl, ranboo, dream, tommy and tubbo. "ghostbur" will refer to glatt and ghostbur since i cant even begin trying to figure that out it'll hurt my brain)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EAT, MY GOONS  
> I HAVE FINALLY DECIDED TO FEED YOU ALL >:D

Dream aimed at the group behind Karl with his crossbow, with Karl trying to block them and shield them from the wrath of the immortal man. Tommy, Tubbo, George and Sapnap looked at Karl in confusion and slight betrayal as Ghostbur went off to the side to look at some blue flowers he saw earlier.

“Karl. Look, man, I trust you,” Dream scowled beneath his mask and Karl could tell, “But why the fuck would you lead them here?”

Karl grinned nervously, not sure how to answer.

The group just had to go fuck it up, didn’t they. The only two rules he made were to not touch anything with his symbol- his pink-and-green swirl- on them and not to go near the grave. But their curiosity just seemed to get the best of them since they decided to go near the place where James’ grave was- which was also the place where multiple other graves were- to see who he was mourning.

“Karl, what the fuck?!” Tommy yelled, annoyed. The sentiment was echoed by the rest of the group minus Ghostbur, “You said the dude’s name was Cornelius. Not Dream!”

Dream dropped his crossbow to the side and pushed his mask to the side to rub his forehead in frustration. To say that everyone minus Karl and Ghostbur (since he was still off to the side somewhere) was surprised to be looking at a seventeen-year-old would be an understatement.

“Karl, you idiot,” Dream sighed, “I thought we agreed that no one was supposed to know unless I said they could!”

“Wait, what the honk?!” Sapnap exclaimed, “Dream, why the fuck do you look like that?!”

“Like what, Sap?”

“Like you’re still seventeen!?” Sapnap yelled, “As far as I know, you’re supposed to be twenty-one!”

“He’s an old man, that’s why,” Karl snorted, only to be glared at by the man in green, “I’m sorry! Please forgive me!”

“Anyways,” Dream rolled his eyes and started speaking with forced cheerfulness in a really sarcastic manner, “Hi! I’m Dream! I used to go by the name Cornelius a really long time ago, and since Karl decided to point it out, I’m one-hundred-and-twenty-one years old!”

“See, you are old!” Karl grinned in triumph as the rest were wondering how Karl knew all this stuff, “You just admitted it!”

“I might be old, but not as old as Philza,” Dream grinned lazily, “Plus, technically I’m still seventeen, just stuck at that age for a really long time.”

_ (“Exactly. You’ll know when to… ah, sacrifice- that sounds weird- yourself, and I’ll be there to help you like you helped me.”) _

The version of Karl that had met him a few days ago’s words were still imprinted in his mind. He had no doubt that Karl would be there to save him, but he didn’t know how this version and his friends here would react. They probably wouldn’t react well.

“Wait- what the fuck?!” George exclaimed, “You’re like, immortal?!”

“Mhm,” Dream nodded, heading towards his cottage, “I just made some mutton soup. You want some?”

“Oh, honk yes!” Karl grinned, “Dream makes the best soup!”

“Wait! Since when were you both so close?!”

Dream turned around to meet Karl’s eyes, and both of them at the same time spoke, “Since forever!” and simultaneously began laughing, with Dream even laughing like a tea kettle like he used to before.

The others, now including Ghostbur, eyed them strangely as they walked into the cottage and sat down on the couches in the living room.

Dream brought in multiple bowls and spoons and after setting them down onto a table, went back to the kitchen and brought in the pot of mutton soup along with a ladle. He served everyone some, and even taking slightly more than he had last time he had visitors. He didn’t know why he made extra, but he just served the leftovers to the wolves or other animals outside.

“So, Karl,” Dream leaned in on his elbow and smirked, “Did you put the roses on James’ grave?”

Karl rolled his eyes, knowing where the immortal was going with this, “Yes.”

“Did you kiss the headstone like you did last time?” Dream wagged his eyebrows expectantly, “I’m sure he would like that.”

Karl turned red and the rest of them just watched the two’s exchange with confusion and slight amusement.

“What the fuck are you two talking about?!”

I’ll give you three guesses who that was. If you guessed Tommy, you’re correct!”

“Karl didn’t tell you, of course,” Dream shrugged, taking a bite/sip of his soup, “James is Karl’s dead ex-boyfriend.”

A lot of silence accompanied that statement and Karl tried to explain, but failed.

To save him from further embarrassment, Tubbo decided to be kind and changed the subject.

“Dream, the food is delicious,” He smiled, but then frowned, “But why are you eating such less of it.”

“Well, dear brother,” Dream grinned lazily, and everyone looked between Dream and Tubbo in confusion, even Karl, “I’ve been trying to get used to eating normally. I wasn’t given a proper meal plan in the prison, and since I was there for like a year, I’ve been trying to get back to my normal eating routine. If I eat too much, I’ll probably puke. But it’s been getting better since I can now have snacks along with my meals.”

Tommy and the rest of the group, not including Karl, since his guilt had been eradicated by Dream a pretty long time ago, looked at their bowls in… well, guilt.

“Why’d you call Tubbo your brother, though, Dream?” Karl asked.

“You’ll figure it out later,” Dream shrugged, “Anyways, why are you guys here?”

“The Egg’s taken control over most of the people in the server,” Sapnap, who had been- surprisingly- silent throughout the entire conversation, spoke up, “Puffy, Nihachu, us, Techno and Philza and Ranboo, and you are the only people left.”

“That was expected,” Dream smirked, “You want me to ally with you? I’ve already allied myself with someone else, and I’m not sure whether he’ll like it if I decide to help you.”

“Who?”

“Technoblade,” Dream answered simply, “He and Philza came over a month-or-so ago to talk to me about something similar. Said they’re pro-omelet. That means they want to turn the Egg into an omelet to eat it.”

“We’re pro-omelet then too,” Tubbo frowned in thought, “And we can help them too!”

“Yeah, I’m not sure if Techno trusts you guys,” Dream shrugged, “And if I do ally with you all, you have to understand one thing.”

“What?” Tommy asked.

“I do not regret anything,” Dream met the young boy’s gaze, “I did. And that means everything I did to you as well, Tommy. I needed to see if you were strong enough. You exceeded my expectations, naturally.”

“What the fuck!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed and thank you for the support! stay healthy  
> (lmao the ending and beginning notes have such different vibes i cant)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MY GOONS, THE TIME FOR REVOLUTION DRAWS NEAR!!!

“Hey!” Karl grinned as he joined the masked man on the roof after sneaking away from the rest of the people below. Ghostbur wasn’t sleeping, but he wasn’t paying attention to the group either. Dream had given the ghost of Wilbur Soot some books from the library in the living room to read, since he had taken an interest in them. The rest had fallen asleep on the couches or on the floor since Dream was able to hand them some sleeping bags, “What’s up?”

“Nothing much, just contemplating my existence and immortality,” Dream shrugged and the time traveler laughed. He knew that Dream got lost in his thoughts a lot, much more than you thought he would. Karl also knew that Dream often doubted his worth, which was absolutely unjustified, “What are you doing?”

“Here to join you, of course.”

Dream nodded and took off his mask, something he did often in front of the time traveler and soon-to-be God of Time to show that he trusted him. He patted a spot next to him and the brunet sat down there.

“How are your memory problems?”

Karl shrugged, a sign that they weren’t getting any better, which was true. He had barely managed to remember the path he took and the fact that Dream was, in fact, staying at the spot of the Village That Went Mad. He hated his memory problems. They made him forget his loved ones and people he cared about.

“Not doing better?” Dream asked, cocking his head to the side. The man in the green cloak grabbed his mask and hit the time traveler on the head, causing the brunet to yelp in surprise.

“What the honk was that for?!”

Dream laughed his tea kettle laugh, somehow not waking up everyone else in the process, “I just wanted to see if hitting you on your head would help with your memory problems.”

“How the honk does that make any sense!?”

“Well, impact on the head can cause memory problems, so maybe it would help since you already have memory problems?” Dream grinned, “Plus it was funny.”

“Your sense of humor is as bad as your… uh…” Karl trailed off.

“What, having some trouble thinking of my flaws, Jacobs?” Dream challenged with a smirk, and Karl scowled, knowing that he was right.

“You don’t have many flaws, Cornelius,” Karl scowled, “Even if I said something, you would know it was a lie.”

Dream laughed like a tea kettle once again.

The two sat in silence for a while after that, just enjoying each other’s company, like they normally did before everything happened. 

“I’ll be calling Techno, Philza, Ranboo and their team over tomorrow,” Dream shrugged, “We need all the help we can get. Just the other day, I saw blood vines come near the graveyard and the farm.”

“Don’t you have like, prime water for the farm?” Karl asked, slightly shocked, “You told me that you sorta- what’s the right word- enchanted the water, didn’t you?”

“Mhm, it seems like the egg’s growing stronger.”

Dream fished out his communicator and started typing as Karl watched in interest.

_ [Dream whispers to Technoblade: Hey Blade, we have some new allies. Come over tomorrow. No time for discussion about this. Bring Phil and Ranboo, and Puffy and Niki. Just tell Niki that she can’t kill anyone here unless I say so.] _

“‘Unless I say so,’” Karl paraphrased, “Shouldn’t it just be ‘Can’t kill anyone?’”

“If one of you idiots gets too annoying, I’ll just complain to her,” Dream grinned, and Karl rolled his eyes, “What? It’s true!”

“You haven’t been getting sleep,” Karl accused after a while, and Dream looked at him, unsurprised, “What? You need sleep!”

“I do not,” Dream rolled his eyes, “I require primes to live, as long as there are primes, I can go without sleep. It’s super relaxing to look at the stars all night, actually.”

“Whatever, but as long as we’re here, you’re getting sleep.”

_ [Technoblade whispers to you: Tommy, Tubbo, George, Sapnap, Ghostbur and Karl are there, right? We’ll be there tomorrow morning just to reduce the pain Tommy’s going to give you.] _

Dream chuckled at that message, deciding to head downstairs and try to sleep once again.

“I’ll be going now, Karl,” Dream smiled, “You should try to get some sleep as well.”

Karl nodded, and the two jumped down and entered the cottage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and thanks for your support!  
> Stay safe <3


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugghhhh i hate life sm  
> i had this entire plan for this story and im not sure how im supposed to go about it now that ive completely changed it T-T  
> i might take longer on chapters and they might be shorter but thats mainly because of writers block but i'll try to complete everything as soon as possible :D

“Hi, Phil, Techno, Ranboo, Puffy, Niki,” Dream smiled and welcomed them into his cottage, with everyone nodding and entering into the small home, only to be greeted by multiple surprised faces, not including Karl since he knew that everyone was coming. The Syndicate entered the living room and sat down on the couch, disregarding the rest of the group minus Dream.

The group that was there earlier had expected the Syndicate- not that they knew the organization existed- to visit the masked immortal soon, they just didn’t know how soon. The thing that they didn’t get was that the Syndicate didn’t half-ass things. They gave their all in everything they were motivated to do.

Techno, Philza and Niki weren’t exactly on friendly terms with Tommy, but they could tolerate him as long as their mission was successful.

Everyone was silent until Dream walked up to the center of the room and started speaking.

“Since we’re all here, we should probably start with what I was planning on doing,” Dream stated, opening his communicator and taking out his notes, “I was first planning on disinfecting some areas around here and maybe some others. I’ve divided everyone into three groups.”

“I thought I told you to sleep,” Karl frowned, which received laughter from the entirety of the Syndicate minus Ranboo, and a glare from Dream, to which he nervously replied, “But please continue!”

“The first group is Philza, Techno, and Niki,” Dream called out and everyone belonging to that group nodded. Dream looked at them calculatingly, then continued, “And the second group is Ranboo, Tubbo, Tommy and Puffy.”

“Sapnap and George, and me and Karl is the third group. I’d prefer if you all sat with your group.”

Everyone arranged themselves into their groups, with Techno, Niki and Philza sitting next to each other, Tubbo, Tommy, Ranboo and Puffy sitting next to each other, and Karl, George and Sapnap sitting next to each other.

“I’ll show at least one of you guys, at least those who don’t know, how to enchant Prime Water. Philza and I already know how to, so if Puffy can, please talk to me afterwards.”

“Alright, Duckling,” Puffy nodded and smiled, with her smile being returned by Dream.

“Okay, we’ll figure everything else out once we finish this stage off. But we will most likely be helping the other people out,” Dream pointed out, “If you all didn’t know, the water used in my farm and the river water is all Prime Water. The fact that there were still some Blood Vines nearby was worrying, but I think that if we can disinfect the areas as quickly as possible, we won’t have anything to worry about.”

“Wait, what the fuck? Why weren’t we told anything about this?!” Tommy asked, “We should know!”

“I didn’t want to worry you all yet,” Dream shrugged, “You guys needed some sort of sleep before today anyways. And Ghostbur?”

The Ghost looked up from his book and smiled cheerfully, “Yes Dream?”

“I need you to stay here and take care of this place, it’s important.”

The Ghost nodded, for once looking solemn, as everyone minus Technoblade, Puffy, Niki, Philza and Karl wondered what was so important about this place. Then they remembered the graves outside. That was part of the reason but no one really needed to tell them anything else did they?

“I have a map and I’ll be dividing territories,” Dream rolled out a map on the table in front of them, “The area of this cottage has already been disinfected last night, but the forest and the cliffs nearby haven’t. Philza’s group can take the northern forest, Puffy’s group can take the southern forest and Karl’s group can

Dream turned to Ranboo, “I need to talk to Ranboo for a second, privately. Could we head outside?”

Ranboo, who was still wary of Dream after what all happened in the prison, nodded nervously as he stood up and grabbed the book sitting next to him, “Sure- uh- let me just grab my memory book.”

“Alright.”

Philza shot the Prime God a look and the two exchanged a non-verbal conversation, agreeing on one thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! thanks for your support! stay safe and healthy!!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> typical. just as i say that i will not be uploading as often as i used to, i decide to feed you all early once again.  
> eat, my GOONS!  
> (i wanted to finish everything off for this fic before the next episode of tales from the smp which is gonna be streamed on march 2nd so here we go i guess. i probably wont be able to though. but here's hoping. and once im done with this, im gonna start with the sequel- a multi-chapter fic- then the trequel- which is gonna be a oneshot.)

Karl watched, as his legs dangled dangerously from the roof, as Dream talked to Ranboo, and as Ranboo nodded slowly, as if processing some stuff that Dream told him. It was strange, to say the least, that suddenly he had to tell Ranboo something in private. It felt as though his best friend had been hiding something, something strange. Something that involved him as much as it involved everyone else, maybe even more.

“What’s up?” Sapnap asked him, taking a seat on the roof and wrapping an arm around his shoulders, “If you’re worried about Dream, he’s pretty secretive. Although you already know that.”

“Mhm,” Karl nodded, leaning into his fiance’s shoulder, “I have my fair share of secrets too, but it’s just weird, it suddenly feels like he’s been drifting away from me.”

“I feel like he’s about to do something stupid,” Sapnap mused after a while, “Although he always does something like that every single day.”

“True. I think he’s trying to be a self-sacrificial idiot, once again.”

The two sat in silence, just enjoying each other’s company after a really long time, and Sapnap decided to ask, “Hey, could you mind telling me what happened with Dream and his… family?”

“I don’t think Cornelius would mind, now that you know about him being… not able to die,” Karl shrugged, “So I guess. You know that this used to be the Village That Went Mad. The people used to call it, “Not A Very Good Town” town.”

Sapnap laughed slightly at that, “Not a very good name for your village, is it?”

“Nope, not at all,” Karl smiled sadly, “But it was accurate. Too accurate, there wasn’t enough water in the well sometimes. Sometimes there wouldn’t be enough sunlight for the farm. Dream came to visit this village when he used the name Cornelius, and the villagers welcomed him with open arms, kinda like you and George did. There was Jimmy, the mayor, Helga the prostitute, the mayor’s whore wife, in his words. Robin, Miles Memington, Catboy, Bob and Jack. They were close, like family. According to the mayor’s log, once Cornelius joined the village, everything was fixed, there weren't any problems with the water, the plants and crops flourished and whatnot.”

“It sounds nice, at least up until now,” Sapnap frowned in thought, “Why does it hold bad memories for him?”

“There were murderers amongst the people, Sapnap,” Karl looked at the graves grievously, “Bob, the Builder, and Jack, the Farmer. Something happened to them, and they decided to kill everyone off. Cornelius died first, but he didn’t- he faked it. Then he had to see Robin and Catboy executed. Helga had died too. Then the mayor. Slowly everyone was killed. Then, Bob and Jack realized what they did, and offed themselves. Dream had to watch everyone he cared about die, and he couldn’t do anything.”

“...” Sapnap stared at his masked, immortal, best friend in shock, not able to say anything. Dream had finished up his talk with Ranboo and was now talking with Puffy and showing her how to enchant Prime Water. Or that was what it looked like, since he had a bucket of water and Puffy was taking notes down onto a notebook.

_ “If you drink enough Prime Water, it could be like the water from the fabled Fountain of Youth.” _

At least that was what he heard from their conversation.

“Who is- was James?” Sapnap asked, “And if you don’t want to talk about it, I’m totally cool with that, I just… um, wanted to know.”

“That’s alright,” Karl laughed, “James… uh, we met in a Masquerade hosted by a Sir Billiam The Third. Accompanying us were Lyaria, Lord Sebastian, Oliver, a guy named Drew and Sir Billiam’s butler. They were all supposedly rich people, and I posed as one, sort of.”

“That… sounds nice?”

“It was. We danced a little bit, played some party games. James kept a drink in hand the entire time,” Karl gave Sapnap a watery laugh, “Until we found out that there was a murderer amongst us. It turns out that Sir Billiam was influenced by the Egg- the Crimson Egg, to be exact- and so was his butler, and the Egg had been influencing everyone to kill one-another. I barely made it out alive.”

“I- Karl, I’m- I don’t know what to say,” Sapnap stared at the grave that was meant for James, “I’m so sorry.”

“That’s okay. You remind me a lot of him, you know?”

“I do?”

“Yeah. And you remember when I was gone for a few days right before Tommy’s Hotel’s opening?” Karl asked him, and Sapnap nodded a yes, “I was out on… another adventure. This time, only one person died. I’m happy that so many people survived, but I saw someone else, a new friend of mine, die. His name was John John, strange name, I know.”

Sapnap wrapped his arms around Karl in an effort to comfort him. “I- I can’t see anyone die in front of me again, Sapnap. I can’t- I- I get attached too easily- I shouldn’t.”

“It’s okay to make attachments, you know. People come and go, but they’ll stay in your heart forever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading and thanks for your support! we're already at 4k+ hits and thats amazing <3 <3  
> stay safe and healthy!!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> super short but still counting it as a chapter.  
> i promised eggpire im giving eggpire  
> and if im correct this one is ending in one or two or three more chapters, but the sequel will be out at around 4th march i think :)

D̷̨̢͓͕̖̜̼̱̂ȑ̷̘̳̿͒̏e̷̞͉̬̹̼̮̜͙̰̾̈́̅͆̒͑͑͠å̴̛̝̗͖͋̒̅̋̕͝ṁ̴͕͖̯͖̈́̽ ̴̛͍̣̠̬̳͙̠̘w̵̫̎̑͒̑̍͂̂̔̾i̷̧̪̰̝̰͉̊̅̔̂l̷͆̾̎ͅl̴̰̣̺̥̪͓̅̑̿ ̴̛̮͈̽̚͘͜b̶͍͉̥̺͈͓͚̽̌̓̽̒̅̃̅͒e̵̼͍͔̩͔̲͇̐̋̃̊͛̒͒̇ ̵͓̗̼̳̏͆̈̽͘ȃ̷̡̪̟̘̫̩͚͙̭̑̓̍̒͝͝ ̵̦͖̘͇͗ṗ̸̡̡̯͎͈̥͚͈͖͉̃͌̈́̔̍̽͆͝r̸̛̤̩̝̈́̂o̸͈̭̻̓̏̒̈́͑̉b̷̖̣̝̞̀̅̇̎̏̄͘l̶̢̼̻͈̹̻̠͓̠̈́̓̀ē̷͉̫̺̖͎̠̠̋m̸̼̼͈͍̮̰̭̮̏͗̉̽͋ͅ

  
  


Bad, seated next to the Egg, tilted his head in confusion. Dream had escaped prison, which was a problem on its own, but the Eggpire, nor any of the other members of the SMP as far as he knew, hadn’t heard nor seen him in a long time, possibly a few months.

“What? Dream hasn’t done anything. At least not yet.”

  
  


B̴͖͇̭̯͉̻͓̝͖̈̀̈̒̎u̸̢̖͎̦̯͂̽̈́͂̇͘t̵͎͎͊̈́̍̒͆ ̵̹̲̣̦̠̆̍̈́̿̃̒̾̂͛͜ḧ̵͕͉͙͙̞́͂̓͑̇͑̿̚e̸̛̖̾ ̴̱͙̤͑̽͂͒̑̈́͠͠w̵͙̻̹̩͖̲̰͗̑͗̈́̄̚̚i̵̲̝̜͇̔l̷͓̈́̉͆͝l̴̘̩̰̩̘̪̗͖͈̀̽̌̓

  
  


It was Antfrost who spoke this time, “What should we do?”

It was almost comical, to the Egg, that these humans and hybrids were willing to kill off their friends without a second thought, were willing to do anything, for just a little bit of power. And that could factor in just perfectly with its plan. The only thing standing in his way was the so-called Prime God. A weakened version of what he used to be, not remembering anything about his powers or how to use them. Of course, the God was immortal, but if the Egg could get rid of him, maybe trap him somewhere, until the full plan, of world domination, as cliché as it sounded, was completed.

And the Egg wasn't an idiot. It knew that when Dream was anywhere, Karl Jacobs was close by. And if it had its way, both Karl Jacobs and Dream would be out of the picture for a _very_ long time.

After all, it would help it hit two birds with one stone, as the saying goes.

  
  


Ȩ̶̺̥̗̰͖̿̔̀͒̍͋ͅn̴̥̪͑̑̍̄̄̾͘ḑ̸̡̩̲̲̳̯̯͔͑͛́̉̆̕͝͝ ̴̡̩̬͓̞͓̪̦̭̎͊̿̐̂͋̄͛͘ͅh̶̘̓͑̿į̴̲͕̱̇̅́͝m̸̛̲̹̼͓̿̔͊͊͆̈́̀͜,̴͕͎̖͈͈̀͝ͅ ̴̥̜̝͂̽̽̅ǫ̸̧̺͓̱̀̈́̈́̈́̅̀̒̕͝n̸͖̕ě̵̙̞͕͎͆̔̑͋̆̑̿͘̚ͅ ̴̟̓w̵̻̮͖̰̭̄̓̌̄͐̎̆̉̋͘a̶͇̓͌̓̊̈́͋͘͘͜y̴̖̌́̓̕ ̶̨̳͖̆̍̽̏̈́̇̂̑ỏ̸͎͙̺̩͑͑̈́̂̓ṟ̷̨͚̬̗͈̓̔̋̓̏͆͠ ̶̡̜̲͍͈̪͕̇̓̈́͛͗̈͗͘ṱ̵̖͕͇̳̒͑́͌̌̎̕h̵͓͓̦͓̜͑̂̐́́e̵̢͔̜̥̠͙͖͗͗̌̊̽͗͝ ̶̯̘̓͒͛̈́͒͐̒̉ô̶̻̥̹͕̣͍̞͖̗̊̄̽͠t̴̫̠͂́͆̊ḣ̵͚͕͓͎̻̄ȩ̸͇͖̻͔̦̪͓̦̐̏͗͠͝ͅr̶̝̍̈̈͂̚͝

  
  


“What?!” Punz exclaimed, then quieted down at the glares of the other members, “I’m sorry. But Dream is- or used to be- one of our friends.”

“Punz…” Bad scowled, drawling out the name dangerously, “If you hadn’t pledged your loyalty to us, and helped us, I would think you would have been a traitor.”

Punz, of course, was loyal to the Eggpire. Or at least as loyal as he could have been as a mercenary. He had hired Purpled for their cause as well, didn’t he. If he hadn’t been actively working towards the Eggpire’s cause, they could have assumed that. But he was, so it was unlikely that he was going to betray them.

“I’m not planning on betraying the Egg. I just thought that it might be a little bit… uncalled for.”

Ė̶̜͛̇̈́̍̉̃̇̒i̸̧̼̠̥̹̯̳̥͕̓̓̄̿̚ͅt̷̛̘͔̞̯̎̐̀͆̉ḩ̸͕͙͙̯̗͆̉̾̇̀̀̿̽ͅe̶̢̢̟̞͙̬̞̝̻̞̐r̵̦͔̜̮̫̩̾̅ ̷̳̫͎̼͓͐͗͋̄̍͜y̶̡̮͙̱̩̗̣͓̯͂̔͐͐̕͠ǒ̴̪̮̖̝̥͗̌̌̚̚͠ǘ̸̹͈͕̞̠̝̰̓̾̿̒̚͠ͅ ̸̥̗͙̦͒̀̄̀̑̆d̶̘̥̮̤̳̲̓͂̈́͘ọ̸̘̈́̅̾́̃̀͝ͅ ̵̹̗̺̗̻̥̼̫͔̽̐̂̄̽͂̚͜͝͠i̷̡̹͎͔̘̤̲͙͇̝͗̂̐̏͑̂t̵̰̱̖̱̞͆͒̔̈̽̈́ͅ.̵̢̮͖̼̤̯̙̏ͅ ̷̜͖̪̺̣͒̀̈́̀̎̂͑́͘ͅͅͅƠ̶̙̫̺̩̟͉̭͗̆̏̚ŕ̸͍̦͠ ̸͇̥͇͈͖̙̮͒ͅȈ̴̬̹̳̳͍̦͈̏́ ̷̹̲̠͎̏w̴̧̛̗̩͕̠͎̄̽̆̚i̵̲̒̊̅̅l̶̨͚̗̎̐̈́́̋͘̚͝͝l̵̡̥͐̌͑̌̍͘̚͝.̷̯͗̍͑̊

  
  


“We won’t disappoint you,” Antfrost stated, receiving nods of agreements from the other members of the Eggpire.

The Egg looked at them smugly. This was too easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! thank you for your support!  
> stay safe and hydrated <3


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T-T im speedrunning this whilst in french class  
> im gonna fail  
> OH WELL WHO CARES WHEN I CAN UPDATE THIS!

Dream wasn’t an idiot. That was a fact. He might have been considered one of the smartest people on the SMP if only he didn’t act in such reckless ways, something he knew for a fact since both Bad and Philza wouldn’t stop chastising him about it. Until he gave up his reckless habits, however, he would be known as one of the most reckless Gods and members of the SMP ever, something that he was surprisingly fine with.

He made those groups because those people got along well. Niki, Technoblade and Philza were allies, they had to have some sort of friendly behaviour or bond with each other. None of them were on good terms with Tommy, so it would have been stupid and very uncalled for if any of them were in a group with the blond teen.

Tubbo and Ranboo worked extremely well together. They had proclaimed themselves as platonic husbands, after all. And they were on speaking terms, at the bare minimum, with Tommy, so that would be a good- or okay, at least- group. But their group needed a responsible person, and since Puffy wouldn’t mind, he put her in their group.

Sapnap, Karl and George were best friends. They would work well together, that was a given, seeing as they had been allies for a long time. Dream had to go in their group since he didn’t want too many people knowing how to enchant Prime Water, since, like he had told Puffy, it could be something used to gain immortality, something he didn’t want everyone to know. He wasn’t sure if he was on friendly terms with Sapnap and George, but he knew that Karl and he were pretty good friends, if not best friends.

And he just felt it, but the thing that Karl-from-the-Future had told him was going to happen in this trip. That was why he had to stay close to Karl- just to protect him. Something bad was going to happen, and he didn’t want it to happen to Karl, or to any of his (ex?) friends.

He knew that he was going to come close to death soon. That would only be possible by drowning, since the current would cause him to drift further if anyone tried to find him. And he wouldn’t be able to breath. That, and if he was stabbed, it would be much worse. He felt like something along those lines was going to happen, and if it did, it would be much better if it were to happen to him and not to anyone else. That’s why he decided to take his team out to the cliffs. This was practically like a willing death, but it was going to help in the long run. And besides, if he did die, assuming that he could, and that Time-God-Karl wasn’t able to make it in time (hah, see what he did there?) or save him, he would be able to meet everyone else- and Spirit, who could forget Spirit- as well. So, a win-win situation.

And even if he didn’t die and Karl wasn’t able to help him, it would be a punishment for his sins. Even though he might have told Tommy and everyone else that he didn’t regret anything he did, didn’t mean that he told the truth.

So basically there were three ways for this to go: Karl could save him and he would stay in the In Between like how it was originally planned; Karl might not be able to reach in time and he could die or Karl couldn’t reach in time and he didn’t die.

Or four, if you add that Karl might have been able to reach him and he still died. A win-win-win-win situation for Dream, or so he thought.

He had everything planned, and if this was supposed to help everyone out, it would be a sacrifice he was willing to pay. What future Karl had told him made it seem like this was extremely beneficial not just for him and the rest of the SMP, but for him as well. He was going to be taken to the In Between, possibly healing for some time, and then study the books there, possibly leaving and travelling to the End, something that he wanted to do but wasn’t allowed to since he was bound by his own rules. But hey, in the afterlife, someone’s gotta have some sort of pass.

He watched as Technoblade, Nihachu and Philza went on their way, waving a goodbye, and then watched Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo and Puffy leave. 

Don't tell Puffy, but he was sure that the teens were going to cause some sort of problems- not the big ones, of course, but the regular bullshit they got themselves into- and that was part of the reason he sent Puffy and not any other adult. Because Puffy was like the Mom of the Server, and if anyone was going to be able to handle the aforementioned bullshit, it would be Puffy.

“Hey, Dream, you okay?” Karl asked, slinging an arm across his shoulder cheerfully, “I don’t know what you’re worried about, everything’s gonna go fine! Not perfectly, but I’m sure everything’s gonna be fine!”

The only thing he would be guilty about after this would be how it would affect everyone else, if it did, anyways. He was sure Karl would feel extremely guilty. He had to reassure them at least for now, that he- and everything else- would be fine. Maybe.

“Hey, guys?” Dream called out to George and Sapnap, along with Karl, “If anything happens, just know that it wasn’t your fault.”

“You’re not going to do any self-sacrificial bullshit, Dream,” George scowled, placing his goggles on his head to look at the man in green, “I know I’ve had enough of that, and I’m sure everyone else agrees.”

Echoes of agreement followed as Dream chuckled dryly.

Oh, they had no idea what was coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! thanks for your support!  
> stay safe and healthy <3


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally got off my ass to write this and give this to you :'D  
> hope you enjoy!!  
> i have a way to incorporate tommy's death into this fanfic so yeah :))

George and Sapnap rushed back to where they had left, but unfortunately, the Eggpire- or at least its three main members, Bad, Punz and Antfrost- had caught them and were chasing them. Dream had sent them to go check out where the Blood Vines had been originating from while he and Karl fixed up some Prime Water to purify the area.

A bit off topic but did you know how scary it was when a literal nine-foot-tall giant demon was chasing you? And if that demon was your father, it was double the horrifying. Especially since said demon scared even the Blood God himself.

The Brit and the Arsonist jumped over tree roots and rocks, hurrying towards the cliffs where Karl and Dream were waiting. Fuck it, if they didn’t reach soon, they wouldn’t be able to warn the two.

Karl had borrowed Dream’s axe and was cutting off any blood vines that even tried to come close to the two, while Dream had gotten multiple buckets of water and was enchanting them. Sapnap and George had come closer to the cliffs and had unintentionally led the Eggpire to the other two.

“I think we’re done with the enchanting,” Dream sighed and stood up, brushing invisible specks of dirt off of his clothes and grabbing his crossbow- which he had placed next to him. Karl smiled and nodded, handing the other his axe and catching the crossbow when it was thrown to him.

“I see Bad, Punz and Ant making their way towards us,” Dream spoke after a while, almost as if he had a third eye, “Do the purifying, I’ll stand guard.”

Karl nodded, and turned towards the buckets of water, grabbing one to experiment. He poured a little bit on the blood vine that was creeping dangerously close to the two, and it immediately shrivelled up. This must have been enchanted in a different way, because the last time someone had poured prime water, the plant had turned green and had become normal. Karl could understand why Dream wanted to kill off the blood vines immediately- they were becoming too much of a problem and unlike Dream himself, the Egg was actually evil. 

Dream dropped his axe and grabbed another bucket of prime water, deciding to help out in the purification-slash-disinfection. Karl nodded and the two exchanged a non-verbal conversation, and started walking towards the other direction, using the prime water whenever it was necessary.

The moment Karl turned around was when he saw a blood vine pierce his friend in the chest. His friend who had somehow managed to teleport to him in time to stop that very same bloodvine pierce him.

“Dream!”

Dream coughed up some blood, “Don’t worry. Being stabbed is not enough to end me.”

  
  


B̸̺̥͐̽̐̃͊̊̐̆̒̋̌̅̂̍̚̚ų̷̜͇͕̲̯͕̹̦̲͙̭̗̼͌̋́͂̏͂͑̾̽͘͘͘̚͝ţ̶̨̛̠͕̞̫̝̺̞̭̺̹͔̘͔̲̣̙̣̽̾̋̑͒́̓̇̆͛͗̏́̈̈́̈́̎̍̔͘͝͠͝͝͝ͅ ̷̨̢̛̛̞͔͉̞̰̳̫̖̣̳̼̪̘̫̟̫̤͚̓̈́̓͊̎̎̎̍͑͊̿͆̄̕͜͠͝ͅm̴̢̢̛͉͖͉͖͈̗͔̹͔̣̼̹̫̜͈̱̝̦̦͕̹̈́͗̓̓́̎̈́͊͊̿̐̈́̽̊͜͝͠ͅą̵̡̨̱̼̮͍̦͖̳͚̯̟̳̥̗̜̝̜͔͔͓̼̱̅̃̌͛͗͗̿̑́̃͆̆͐͘͠y̵̡̛̟̻͕̹̪̱͖̺͎̦͓̳̜̞̠͖͔̟̙̮̯̪̟̘̥̞̟̩̹͋͐̇̀̃̈̓͠b̸̢̨̗̬̩̪̰͖̤̱̙͉͔̥̆̇͑͠ë̷̡͖̬̭̰̘̻̖͙̻͚̻͓́͜͜ ̸̧̨̛̟͙̹͈̫̮̥̜͎̻͓̲̘͚̖͊̎̈́́͂̃̏̌̽͑̉̋̌̀̏̈́̉̚̚̚͜͝͝t̶͔̻̠̣͓͚̳̰̦̣͖̍ḧ̸̡͈͙̺̪̹͍͈̣̫̹͈̗̩̞̝̠̞͙́̿͊̌̏̆ͅȉ̵̢̯͓͕̣̜̪̞̮̣͙̞͙̣͚̤̫̼̪̀͊̌͊͜͝ͅs̴̢̝͓̼̯̲͎̯̙̖͙͙̲̬̗̺̟̠̠̜̦̲̗̙̱̿̈́̓̋̽͘ ̵̨̛̗͓͍͇̉̓͛̀̀̊̂͆́̽͆͑̿͌̓̓̾̂̄͊̏̈́́͘͝͠͝i̸̡̛͓̜̠̬̮͉͍͆̓͐̅͛͛̂̋̂͋́̿̊̉̑̃̔̄̈́̚̕͠͠ͅs̵͖͙̜͓̻̬̯̔̔͐̏

  
  
  
  


A blood vine grabbed his ankle and pulled, but Karl grabbed his friend’s wrist, stopping him from falling but being pulled along with him. Dream looked at him, wide-eyed and surprised, and shook his head.

“You’re gonna fall too,” he said, and Karl glared at him.

“Don’t you honking dare, Dream,” Karl scowled, and Dream smirked. Karl’s arm was dangling off the cliff, barely being able to hold the masked man.

Dream gave his friend a two fingered salute with his free hand, and smirked, twisting the other hand, causing Karl’s grip to loosen.

“Don’t miss me too much.”

“DREAM!”

Sapnap and George watched this in shock and horror. Bad and the rest of the Eggpire had slipped away.

_(The Time God clicked open his stopwatch, smiling, “It’s time, isn’t it?”_

_Not waiting for an answer, he stood up, and opened a portal.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! thank you for your support!!  
> stay safe and hydrated <3  
> thank you for bearing with me and this hiatus :D


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay we are so close to the end that its making me nervous-

All of his instincts told him to jump, to kick, to shout, to get to the surface but he didn’t. The Blood Egg had thought it was able to get the best of him, but it didn’t. He could see Karl, Sapnap and George, albeit not very well, who had rushed towards the cliff. All he had to do was wait. Wait and wait and wait until something or the other happened.

He could see Karl getting ready to jump after him, only stopping when Sapnap and George stopped him. Dream smiled.

Eventually, his lungs started to burn, and he needed oxygen. Despite water being made of oxygen and hydrogen, it wasn’t really pleasant to breath it in. Despite his better judgement, Dream took in a breath, clutching his throat when he drank in the water to stop himself.

He felt his vision get blurry and he felt dizzy. Black spots clouded his vision. And then he felt calm. He wasn’t afraid of death, he controlled death. He didn’t know where that thought came from, but it was true. He could control death. But if he did, why did Catt, Robin, Jack, Jimmy, Bob, Helga, Miles, James, Lyaria, Oliver, Drew, John, Wilbur, Schlatt, why did so many people die? He might not have been close to- or even knew- some of them, but their deaths still affected him badly.

He could still teleport out of the water based on the new ability- so to speak- he had discovered, but he decided to keep trust in the new God of Time, and stay there, despite the large amount of pain he was currently dealing with. He was impaled with a vine that was somehow extremely sharp, and then was drowned, all within five minutes.

He could see a portal- pink and green- appear right next to him, and the person- Karl, the God of Time- smiled, “It’s time.”

He was sure that it was Karl but a part of him told him he was hallucinating. That no, Karl wasn’t there and it was his own brain trying to trick him into believing he would be okay since he most definitely wasn’t. He didn’t know what to believe. On one hand, he knew Karl was there, on the other, he could have been hallucinating. Karl picked him up in what could easily be identified as a princess carry, and led him to the portal.

Dream closed his eyes before they could reach wherever the portal led them to. They arrived at the In Between.

-

Karl’s eyes widened when he saw a bright light- pink and green- appear in the water, with a person who looked suspiciously like him coming out of something that looked like a portal. The person there somehow looked directly at him, and then proceeded to enter the portal again. He couldn’t exactly see what was going on, but he/she/they were definitely holding something or the other.

“We have to tell the others. Maybe they would be able to help.”

Karl and George nodded in agreement, and the three set off again.

What Karl did not understand was, Dream had practically teleported to save him. If he could teleport, why didn’t he come back up? Was the person there somehow related to it? Did they have something planned? He did warn them…  _ “Hey guys, if anything happens, just know that it wasn’t your fault.” _

Something was going on. And Dream couldn’t possibly be gone. It wasn’t possible. He was a God, and was immortal. It simply wasn’t plausible, possible or probable. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! thank you for your support!!  
> stay safe and hydrated <3


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its been wonderful writing this fanfic and im sure everyone is going to enjoy the sequel too! i might have also been hinting at a oneshot trequel before so keep an eye out for that as well :D

“He WHAT?!”

Philza shook his head and Techno glared at the group of three who had recently returned. Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo looked at them in shock while Puffy shook her head and cried into Niki’s shoulder. Ghostbur had been handing everyone some blue. Karl looked at the door- he could see the small painting Dream had made on it. It seemed like he had added a bee to represent Tubbo as well. 

Something about whatever had happened still didn’t sit right with him. It was almost too convenient for Dream to suddenly disappear, and for whoever that was to know what was going to happen. Dream’s words told him not to blame himself for what had happened but it was almost as if he was talking about this very moment.

“We can still go to look out for him,” Tommy muttered hurriedly, grabbing an axe that was placed next to him, and standing up, “He’s immortal, he’s probably still alive.”

“There are currents,” Philza explained, “It’s possible that he’s alive, yes, but it’s not possible to stay in one position the entire time. Karl, do you have anything to say?”

“Yeah,” Karl nodded, standing up from where he was seated and brushing off invisible specks of dirt, “I- I might have been hallucinating, but there was this person there. They- I think they were male but I’m not sure- came from some sort of a pink and green portal. It looked like they grabbed Dream and left.”

“So we know he’s sort-of safe,” Techno muttered, “At least he’s out of the ocean. Now where is he currently?”

“All we need to do is find out where in hell whoever took him took him,” Sapnap frowned, “Either that or Karl was in fact hallucinating. We’re not sure about that yet.”

“I’m not sure about it yet,” Karl agreed, “Even if I wasn’t hallucinating, that doesn’t narrow anything down. He could be anywhere.”

-

Dream awoke with a start, gasping for breath. He saw that he was somewhere in a place completely white- ethereal, even. He had never been here, but he assumed that this was the In Between. At least that was what it looked like, he could only go by what he has heard from tales from Karl.

“You’re finally awake,” Karl smiled, “I was afraid.”

Dream grinned thankfully in return and started to stand up, receiving a glare from the other. Dream raised his hands in resignation and leaned back on the bed. Everything was absolutely white, but there was some white-and-yellow terracotta thrown in. It was almost as if it was like their old home. He knew that it was built by the previous God of Time, the traitor, and he didn’t trust it openly.

“I know a lot of things, but you know more, y’know?” Karl grinned, and Dream nodded, “Your time here in the In Between will lead us to figuring out a deep secret held in this place. I can’t tell you anything except for the fact that there will be books meant for me- or different versions of me- and they all hold something different in them. There are two perspectives written in those books, and they are going to help you.”

Karl paused for a while to see if Dream understood what he was talking about. Dream nodded to show that he understood and Karl started talking again.

“I have to go back to my room,” Karl checked his pocket watch again, “There are different areas here, under his control and under my control. They follow different timelines, Your job is to help me take control over the other areas in this castle.”

“Alright,” Dream agreed, “I can handle that. I assume this place can also help me control my powers?”

“Yeah,” Karl grinned, stepping into a portal he had just conjured up, “See ya later, Dreamexdee.”

Dream, although confused at the name, nodded and waved Karl a goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the support you all have shown here! i hope you all enjoy the sequel as much as you seemed to have enjoyed this! stay safe and healthy <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!  
> Keep an eye out for the next chapter!  
> And you know what would be poggers? if you drank water! Stay hydrated my friends!


End file.
